Panzer Battles Major-General F W von Mellenthin

Von Mellenthin was born in 1904 and, after graduation in 1924, enlisted in the Seventh Cavalry Regiment stationed at Breslau. In 1935 he was ordered to report to the War Academy in Berlin for training as a General Staff Officer. By the time the Second World War started in 1939 he was Intelligence offer to the Third Corps, then commanded by General von Witzleben. By the end of the war van Mellenthin had risen to the rank of Major-General and was Chief of General Staff, Fifth Panzer Army, on the Western Front.

General van Mellenthin was in a unique position to write this comprehensive account of the various battles fought by the Panzers, as he was present at all the campaigns in which they were involved. In 1939, with the Third Corps, he was active in the Polish Campaign. Then the Conquest of France, the Balkan Campaign, the Western Desert with Rommel, and the Russian Campaign including Stalingrad and Kursk. After the Allies had successfully invaded France, in 1944, he was moved to the Western Front under Field Marshal van Rundstedt. It was here, in 1945, that he was taken prisoner by the advancing American troops.

After the war General van Mellenthin moved, with his wife and children, to South Africa and became an executive with a German airline.

Major General von Mellenthin provides an extremely knowledgeable account of the divisional level fighting before El Alamein and during and after Stalingrad. Of particular interest are his accounts of the 4th Panzer Army's attempt to rescue the 6th Army at Stalingrad and the 4th's actions near Belgorod during Operation Citadel.

Major-General F W von Mellenthin
Hardcover 336 pages 2001